To think there's an unfair stigma around recreational drug use?

[janef001]

I have a female friend who recreationally uses weed, ecstasy and xanax from time to time. They live in a houseshare with two other women.

Last week one roommate couldn't find an Apple Watch and asked my friend if they've seen it. They said no. My friend went to sleep later during the day and overheard the other two downstairs saying "I think x must have taken it for cash, you know she does drugs all the time."

My friend was upset to say the least and especially when the roommate later found it in the next day at the bottom of her clothes hamper near the washing machine.

I know these attitudes aren't uncommon and I've heard my own family who are quite educated express them. I understand the devastation addiction causes but many people take drugs apart from weed and alcohol and don't end up stealing from friends/family/roommates.

I wonder why there's still such a strong stigma

As someone who has had some experience of this (ahem), increasing I find it has become less of a stigma and in some circles it is very commonplace.

I actually think it should be more stigmatised people are in total denial about the lives it destroys through dealing and crime, county lines, exploitation, vulnerable people and that's just here without even thinking about devastation in South and central America etc for cocaine.

Why is it woke to be pro drug use instead of anti drug use?

Wokeness (whatever that means) has nothing to do with it. Relaxed drug laws are a mainstream position. Eg. a majority think cannabis should be legalised: yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2021/04/06/fcf4a/3

With respect though what do you even mean? How can you possibly calculate the risk of the people you know of going on to become addicted due to their drug use? You can't as an individual quantify that.

This is one of the problems, people who haven't see the dark side and the impact of what people go through with addiction thinking it's all fine because it hasn't got to them, or there friends, yet.

Should have read your post before posting my own thoughts. 100% agree

So can you darling 😘

This thread is hilarious. Would you feel the same about the person who spends a fortune drinking themselves silly every weekend? Alcohol is a toxic and addictive drug that ruins lives. Doesn’t have the same stigma though does it?

What about the nicotine addict spending a fortune smoking 20 a day? Would they be stigmatised as a potential thief? Do you know how many people die of smoking related diseases in the UK every year? 250,000. That’s a lot. But no, it’s the recreational weed smokers or weekend ecstasy takers who are the dangerous addicts.

I feel the same. Alcohol is much more accepted and is still damaging, I have seen people suffer and be ill from alcohol abuse, and they can also steal in order to buy some cheap liquor (never the good stuff!)

I have also been on the accusation end, my friend was drunk and misplaced her vape. Some other people at the party who didn’t know is accused in whispers, my partner of stealing it….because he smoked weed at the time (no longer does). He wasn’t even smoking at the party as it was at someone’s house, and he wouldn’t touch a vape pen with a barge pole 😂

but I get your point. The stigma around it rest bugs me, not had the ecstasy and Xanax POV before but definitely the weed POV. it is time people talked more openly and acceptable about drugs, it’s obvious people do them, they’re in films and tv shows constantly, lots of celebs do drugs….and don’t get me started on politicians!!

Totally agree. Even more reason to legalise drugs and take them off the streets and out of the hands of gangs.

Ironically the medication for ADHD basically medical grade cocaine or speed. Uppers are usually the drug of choice for self medicating, in fact previous drug use is a key indicator in diagnosis for many people.

The weed trade is associated strongly with the criminal exploitation of people, so your friend is supporting that. That's enough for me to not respect or trust her. I am part of a group of people who support relatives of addicts - whether weed, coke, alcohol, heroin or whatever. The devastation addicts wreak on the world around them is horrifying. My late husband thought he was drinking 'recreationally'. He died aged 58.

Illegal drug use isn't a victimless crime - even the trade in illegal prescription drugs involves crime, violence and exploitation. It is not acceptable and the stigma is fully understandable.

Where we're going wrong as a society is to place the stigma on the user rather than the addiction - there should be far more funding for rehab and support. Most people who abuse substances have underlying issues that need to be addressed.

I don't understand this take at all.

Surely the point is that they are all bad and there should be more awareness and treatment options for the addictive nature of these substances, not just make them all okay because some are legal?

Just such a reductive point.

Voted YANBU because drug use and stealing are two different things, and shouldn't be conflated unless circumstances demonstrate that a person is doing (or considering doing) both.

There was a programme oin rdio 4 about human trafficking. they talked about children and teenagers from Vietnam being tafficked into the UK to tend cannabsi farms 24 hours of the day.

But of course weed is harmless according to people like my middle class sister in law who donates to things like UNICEF.

It's not the drug use at all that's the issue. It's the supply chain and the lives affected by the chain just so someone can get high.

Again, if you're angry and the supply side angle (a reasonable thing to be angry about!) then you should be pro-legalisation and regulation. Because you must accept that whatever the current stance is, it's not working.

I'd encourage anyone taking illegal drugs to look into the supply routes and impact on other humans, not just those who take drugs but including under-18s being trafficked/ running county lines, and consider whether it's really worth it for their 'high'.
I know my supply chain. I buy from a family friend who has been growing his own for years. It’s pretty basic (weak) stuff compared to stuff from the avenues you’re talking about but he enjoys growing it, I enjoy smoking it. Get no more affected than I would a few glasses of wine and no ill effects (other than inhaling Doritos) like I do from any amount of alcohol. I don’t see the harm in what I’m doing, do you?

OP obviously goady post has started something though huh.

Alcohol is WAY worse than most illegal drugs and people who are addicted to alcohol steal to fund their habit. Yes, there is a massive unfair stigma around illegal drugs. Legalisation would help, as would trying them. They're fun! Chill out people!

Legalise everything. Honestly, 90% of the issues go away and the remaining 10% you now have tax revenue to deal with.

It's tiresome listening to a load of old bollocks about what is, at it's heart, an issue of trauma and MH.

I don't purport to have all the answers by the way, I'm conflicted over the legalisation of some things like weed.

I just think people are uninformed about addiction and don't realise how widespread it is, how many demographics it effects, how badly it effects people, and how difficult recovery can be.

Drugs can be glamorised and people concerned about them are often painted as ignorant, sheltered pearl clutchers. People in my life are or have been variously addicted to alcohol, opiates, cocaine, and such - even cigarettes! I've seen the differences between addicts of different types of substances, I've seen high functioning addicts and addicts whose lives have crumbled around them. I've seen addicts who've been enabled in their addiction until almost the day they died.

I am very wary of people having both sides of the science and the experience before they assert that it's fine, x should be legalised, it's no problem, it's recreational etc.

You’ve missed the point entirely. Clearly most drugs are potentially dangerous and addictive, not all are stigmatised in the same way though. There is a hysteria around illegal drugs on mumsnet.

Colleagues coming in to work after smoking cannabis is acceptable then?

Is it safe?

Where we're going wrong as a society is to place the stigma on the user rather than the addiction - there should be far more funding for rehab and support. Most people who abuse substances have underlying issues that need to be addressed

This 100% ^

It's about as acceptable as coming in drunk so no, of course not. What an odd question.

Agree

Remember how mere weeks ago, thousands of MN were making the completely correct and pertinent point that making abortion illegal does not prevent abortions from happening, it just makes them unsafe?

The same is true of drugs. Making them illegal doesn’t prevent people from taking them. Decades of living with the War on Drugs whilst the overall number of recreational drug users grows has conclusively proven that. All the illegality does is make them unsafer for both consumer and producer.